Renovating

Sixth time's the charm

Ottawa-area couple's home builds on everything learned from their first five homes

The home of Diane and Peter Goyette is designed for comfort first, including a double-sided gas fireplace.

Photograph by: Julie Oliver
, The Ottawa Citizen

After the sixth time, Peter and Diane Goyette have got building their own home down to a science.

Granted, Peter is a custom home builder and Diane has great design sense, but six homes is a lot to build for one family. Good thing this couple, married 31 years, gets along well.

Some folks renovate when their home needs a change. Not the Goyettes.

"Every house we've done we always built for the stage we were at in our lives," says the 53-year-old Peter, which means they move about every five years or so. There was the starter home, then larger ones. House No. 4 was the one they stayed in the longest - about 15 years. It was a four-bedroom, two-storey Georgian where their three children grew up. That was followed by a bungalow.

"And then the kids got to be young adults. Now we don't want them in our space," says Diane with a laugh.

That leads us to house No. 6, a threebedroom, executive-style bungalow on about 1.75 acres near Manotick Station. At 3,100 square feet, it can still be a family home, but it's flexible enough for a retired couple and can easily be converted to include an in-law suite or separate home office in the basement. The 750-square-foot loft area above the garage offers a private wing for the couple's two sons and has its own heating system so it can be closed off when the boys aren't there.

The look of the home all started with a picture of a kitchen in a magazine. The Goyettes were already in the process of designing when they came across the photo in Dream Kitchens.

Featuring ornate ceiling beams and elaborate vent and cabinetry above the cooktop, they fell in love with it and adapted their plans.

"We designed the house around the kitchen, but keeping a lot of what we already had that worked," says Diane, 50. Their last three houses have had many similarities as they finetuned what works for them and incorporated it into each new home. "We bring what we like, but we add to it," she says.

Incorporating the magazine kitchen design meant extending the cathedral ceiling from the great room through the kitchen, adding four hammer-style ceiling beams and embellishing the area above the cooktop and range hood by adding transom windows to bring more light into the room. It's an effect that adds both grandeur and a cosy warmth to the space.

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Perhaps it was inevitable that Peter would become a home builder. He tells the story of how, as a seven-year-old Grade 1 student, he went on a trip to Upper Canada Village and saw a Georgian-style home, with the typical Roman columns. "I fell in love with it back then ... and I said, 'That's the kind of house I want to have.' " Four of the homes he has built for his family, including this one, have been Georgians.

Peter's introduction to the construction industry began more than 30 years ago. At 16 he began working full time as a carpenter, learning the trade from his father. He would eventually go on to work on more than 1,000 homes, building 40 on his own. Some of his career was spent as a foreman for Princiotta Custom Built Homes, including overseeing homes built for the Ottawa Hospital Lottery. For a time in the '90s, when work was slow here, he'd leave the country to learn about steel-frame housing in Japan, Argentina and Germany.

"He'd leave for a month at a time and go and build a house, then come back and have another contract and go to another place. It was an interesting experience for him," says Diane.

Today he runs his own company, Goyette Custom Homes Ltd., winning contracts mainly by word of mouth. He builds when he wants to and is exploring the idea of helping novices build their own homes, acting as both contractor and teacher and letting them be as hands-on as they're comfortable with. With Home No. 6, he decided it was time to build as much of it as he could himself, relying on trades as little as possible.

"This time around he wanted the pride of doing most of it himself," says Diane. That meant doing the septic bed, foundation, framing, ceramic, all the finishings, building the Roman pillars, the coffered ceilings, the interlock and more. He figures about 80 per cent of the work is his own, with some assistance from skilled friends in the business.

But it also meant living in a trailer on the property for six months - through winter - while the home was being built. Relaxing at the kitchen table on a cold February morning, the Goyettes can laugh about it now, but the experience made for some hardship. Peter had just poured the foundation back in the fall of 2010 when they sold their old home and had just three weeks to move.

Peter got the shell of the new home up quickly, then focused on insulating the garage so they'd have somewhere to store their furniture. Once that was done, he had to stop work to finish another contract before he could resume building the house before Christmas.

A short cruise just after Christmas got the couple out of the trailer temporarily, plus Diane travels a lot for work - she is a program manager for SafeNet - "so she was gone a lot, too, which was kind of a blessing," Peter says with a grin, prompting a laugh from Diane. It's clear these two are very comfortable with each other.

Although Peter built much of the house himself, Diane drew the line at letting him do the stonework on the exterior. Why?

"Are you kidding me?" she asks. "We were already six months in the trailer. No way! The deal was the house had to be finished inside and out before we moved in. And he sort of met the timeline." Now it's Peter's turn to laugh.

He tries to reject the theory that those who build their own homes often move in with about five per cent of the finishing touches to be completed and it seems to take forever to get them done. But Diane contradicts him.

Not allowed to do the exterior, Peter compromised and did the stone fireplace instead, with the help of a friend. In both cases the work is superb. Outside, the idea was to have the façade resemble a restored old settler's home, with bigger joints purposely added to give it that old look. "That same stone on other houses doesn't look the same," says Diane. "On other houses it's very clean, very rectangular, nice lines. Here it's choppy."

Inside, the double-sided gas fireplace, which soars 16 feet to the cathedral ceiling and provides the focal point for both the great room and kitchen, was finished in cultured stone, although its application mimics the home's exterior. The work was good enough to fool a knowledgeable friend, who thought it was real stone. "Coming from him, that's a helluva compliment," says Diane.

Attention to detail and the ideas gathered over many years are evident in every room, from the moment you step inside the front door. The foyer, for instance, features a ceramic tile inlay in the oak floor inspired by one the Goyettes saw in Florida some 15 years ago; the door itself is 42 inches wide, with double sidelights and transom window to give more emphasis to the entry, as well as make it easier to move furniture. The crown moulding here - and throughout the house - is elaborate, stretching about 10 inches, and almost every ceiling in the home is unique, whether coffered, cathedral or tray.

"There was a house we had seen in Washington one time and every ceiling had a detail," says Peter. The couple makes a habit of visiting model homes, both here and when they travel, to see what's new and get ideas on styles and positioning of rooms.

"I like to get the feel of the flow when I visit homes," Diane says.

While the great room and kitchen, with their soaring ceilings and matching beams, may be the heart of the home, it's the dining room that has the real wow factor. Dramatic and elegant in black, white and gold, it's a testament to Diane's vision. She was inspired by a blackand-gold fabric she found (now the dining room drapes) and envisioned the room with high wainscoting in off-white, paired with black walls above.

Peter's reaction? "Black? You're out of your mind," she recalls him saying. But when an interior decorator friend confirmed her choices, he gave in. Now, he loves it.

So, with this "final masterpiece," as Diane calls it, will the Goyettes finally stay put? Maybe, but don't bet on it. Although the home has been designed so that it can be their retirement home, "I'm not saying it will be," she says.

In fact, she's already got the kitchen for the next house in mind.

LESSONS LEARNED

Peter and Diane Goyette have learned a lot over the years in building six homes for their family. Here are some of their tips:

Watch the budget: It's very easy to go over-budget. Really determine if higher-priced items will add value. A good example is kitchen handles; lower-priced ones will be just as good. Budget by category such as lighting, plumbing, flooring and kitchen cabinets and stick to it no matter the temptation.

Brace yourself: Building your own home is time-consuming and stressful on relationships. Expect that it will take away your attention from your full-time employment and family and know that it will take a lot of your time and patience.

Use the pros and don't rush: Spend extra time and effort on finishing touches such as ceramic, trim and flooring so that joints and the point where different materials meet each other are perfect. These things are what people notice. But even more important are the structural items such as the foundation, the framing and the building envelope. Those areas are not easily noticed, but can be costly disasters if they fail later on.

First things first: Unlike when we built houses in the '80s and '90s, there's a lack of reasonably priced building lots today. Try to find a lot that you will be happy with before investing a lot of time in your house plan.

Do your homework: A favour from a tradesman is not always costand time-effective. Get recommendations and verify references. Start with someone you trust and ask for the names of dependable tradespeople that they have used.

Lighten your workload: Be mindful of choices that facilitate easy cleaning. Dark or light floor colours show a lot of dirt, and dark floors can look dull quickly; black countertops will show cloth streaks; acrylic showers and tubs are easy to clean; scratches show less on floors with a semi-gloss finish. Having no carpets means it's easier to clean, as well as being better for allergy sufferers, and a house with a place for everything is much easier to keep tidy, so you can never have too much closet or storage space.

Peter Goyette and Goyette Custom Homes can be reached at peter. goyette@bell.net

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